Priory production of “Kiss Me, Kate” a success

The Priory Fine Arts Department celebrated 20 years of the Kevin Kline Theatre with the production of “Kiss Me, Kate,” a musical that ran February 16-19. Music and lyrics are by Cole Porter, and the original production was a comeback and personal triumph for Porter. It proved to be his biggest hit and the only one of his shows to run for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway.

“Kiss Me, Kate,” tells the story of two one-married, now-divorced musical theater actors, Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, who are performing opposite each other in a Broadway-bound musical version of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The pair begin an all-out emotional war mid-performance when Lilli discovers Fred sent his latest fling, Lois Lane, Lilli’s wedding bouquet. The only thing keeping the show together are threats from a pair of gangsters: Lois’s steady boyfriend, Bill Calhoun, loves to gamble, and to avoid the responsibility of paying his debts has signed Fred’s name to an IOU. Gangsters have come to collect on it, and this show will provide the money that Fred needs to avoid getting his fingers broken. In classical musical comedy fashion, madness ensues.

Sophomore Wil Craig said, “We kept getting better, less nervous, and by Saturday it was fun.” Mrs. Raley, Fine Arts Department Chair and theatre instructor, agreed. “It’s kind of like becoming state champions in sports. You get better and better as you go. By Saturday, they really knew what they were doing, and Sunday was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, that was our last performance!”

Mrs. Raley said, “We had a great cast and crew. They really jelled, and are an awesome group of kids. They enjoyed being with each other, and even exchanged Secret Santa gifts at Christmas. We had fun through the whole experience, even while the cast and crew worked really hard.”

Special thanks to Father Michael for his cameo appearance as the baseball bat-wielding cab driver, looking for his two-dollar fare from Bill Calhoun.